#ShortTuesday – Cantankerous

Malia punched her mattress and cursed.

“Please Miss, calm down,” her maid Talees said.  Talees stood by the thick wooden door, ready to bolt from the room if Malia took to another fit.

The girl was far too aggressive and angry for a princess. Talees had learned over the years to always have an escape route at the ready when Malia was upset.

“Can you believe what that old, cantankerous fool said to me!  That he will never train a girl.  That it’s not proper for a woman to touch a blade.  Women can’t handle a sword.  Really!?”  She stomped around her room, from one wall to another and back again.  “I’ll show him!  I will become a Blademaster. The first woman Blademaster.”

“But how will you do that with no one to train you?”  The girl was being ridiculous, Talees just had to make her see it for herself. Talk her from the ledge.

Malia continued stomping around the not small room, trying to free her mind, but the walls felt as if they were closing in on her, suffocating her.  She had to get out.  Out, away from the stone walls of her quarters, of the palace itself, or she would go insane.  That much she knew.  She started for the door, but Talees blocked her way.

Talees percieved what was happening and knew that she must stop it.  “Where are you going Princess?”  Her voice cracked, betraying the confidence she hoped to project.

“I don’t know, but I am going.  Do not try to stop me.”

“Yes Miss.  I know that I cannot stop you, but please, think it through.  It is dangerous out of the palace, and it will be dark soon.  Who will protect you.  I would go with you, but I fear that I would be no help.”

“Of course, you are right.  I do need protection.”  Malia mock thought about her situation for a moment before holding a finger in the air as if an idea had just come to her.  “I know, I’ll take my own protection with me.”

“Who?”

“Not who.”  Malia reached beneath the matress and pulled free a scabbarded sword and strapped it across her back.

Tal gasped, unable to form words and ran from the room.  The girl had lost her mind altogether this time, and would surely find herself dead by morning if someone didn’t stop her.  She ran down the gray stone hallway screaming for help.  Knowing that no one would be in the princess’s tower, she screamed all the louder and ran even faster.

Malia checked the position of the sword over her soulder.  The scabbard hung a bit in the fold of her dress, but that coud not be helped.  She was still a lady, and she would dress like one.  A Lady with a sword that was.

She stepped confidently from her room and started down the long stairs of the tower, following the echoes of the screaming Talees.

Short Tuesday is a little something I try to do… on Tuesdays!  Sorry, couldn’t help it.  Anyway, I take a word, a word like cantankerous and try my best to write a short story or scene with it.  The words typically come from Dictionary.com’s word of the day e-mails that show up in my inbox every morning around 8:12am, but aren’t limited to them.

I hope you enjoyed reading my Short!  Feel free to come back anytime.